Holy Smoke!

Pope Francis has died and the process of selecting a new pope has begun. Today, the puffs of smoke from the Vatican chimney were black.  The Conclave’s first vote to elect the next pope did not produce enough votes for a single individual to be selected. Traditionally, black smoke from the chimney means that the Cardinals must take at least one more vote, and probably more than that. White smoke means, “We have a Pope!”

Many people believe that this is the origin of the English-language idiomatic expression of surprise, Holy Smoke! Surprisingly, this does not seem to be the case.

Holy Smoke! is a minced oath.  (I will talk about minced oaths in another post). The fact-checking website Snopes.com (I will talk about Snopes.com in another post) says that the belief mentioned above is false. Snopes.com/fact-check/holy-smoke/

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known written mention of holy smoke was in The Epiphany, a 1627 poem written by Sir J. Beaumont and it references the burning of incense. The earliest known use of holy smoke as an exclamation or expletive was in 1892, by Rudyard Kipling in his The Naulahka.

            The expression may, ultimately, have been derived from the Roman Catholic practice but there is no known documentary proof of this.

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Update: On 8 May 2025, white smoke emerged from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was selected as the next Pope. He chose as his regnal name Pope Leo XIV.  

Everybody Out!

Following the death (or very rarely, the resignation) of the Roman Catholic Pope, those Cardinals who are eligible to vote travel from around the world and gather in the Sistine Chapel for the papal conclave to elect the next pope. The word “conclave” is from the Latin “cum clave,”

meaning “with key.”

After the cardinals declare group and individual secrecy and faithfulness oaths, the Master of the Papal Liturgical Celebrations yells out in Latin, “Extra omnes!”  This translates as “Out, all!,” basically meaning “Everybody get out!” Only the cardinal-electors and one or two assistants each may remain in the chapel. Then the doors are locked, from the outside. 

It was the locking of the doors from the outside which intrigued me. The cardinals are literally locked in  They cannot communicate with the outside world or leave the chapel unless they all agree. They may only leave the chapel to sleep in a nearby guesthouse.

This system was devised by Pope Gregory X after his 1271 election process lasted for two years and nine months. The rules seem to be designed to make the process uncomfortable.

1. The cardinals are locked in with no communication with the outside world.

2. The cardinals receive no salary during the conclave.

3. Food is handed into the chapel through a closed system and is reduced in amount and variety after the first five days.

6. The cardinals must ask permission to leave the group and can only leave if everyone agrees.

Gregory X intended that the cardinals would be “locked up together until they elected a new pope.”  His rules seem to have worked. Upon his death, his successor was elected in one day.  Later, the rules were suspended until the election of  Celestine V lasted from April 1292 until July 1294. The rules were re-instituted and since 1831 no conclave has lasted longer than one week.